The Wrong Seat
by livinganotherlife
Summary: Jily AU in the muggle world. Lily's already late for Marlene's party, and when she finds someone sat in her seat on the train she doesn't react quite how she'd like.


Jily Train AU

"Come on," Lily muttered, glancing at the clock. Tapping her foot anxiously against the concrete platform, she turned to the departures board to double-check the time. Yep, it definitely said 1:40, so where was the bloody train? If it took much longer, she'd be late for Marlene's party.

Her impatience was interrupted by a young man with shaggy black hair, who dashed onto the platform, crashing into her on the way.

"Oops, sorry." He looked around wildly, before catching sight of some other men and swaggering over to them.

Lily considered marching across to give him a piece of her mind, but decided it wasn't worth the hassle. The train was pulling up now, anyway.

Shaking off her annoyance, she hopped into the nearest carriage. The messy-haired man and his friends were just ahead of her, she noticed.

As she stowed her overnight bag in the luggage rails, she tugged her ticket out of her pocket to check her seat. C-15. Pausing to text Marlene to let her know that the train was running behind, she slipped into the queue of people filtering down the aisle. She looked up at the seat numbers- C10, 11, 12…there was 15.

The problem was, a mop of black hair was already poking above it. It was sticking up at the back, she noticed.

Lily sighed inwardly. She hated kicking people out of their seats. But there was a reserved slip on it, and the rest of the carriage was full.

So, without a choice, she continued to her seat. Steeling herself, she said, "Sorry, but that's my seat."

The man looked up. Lily's heart skipped a beat- the only way to describe him was _fit_, a word she usually avoided like the plague. The mess of black hair framed beautifully chiselled cheekbones and a strong jaw, and his hazel eyes were lit up with confusion beneath rounded glasses. Lily was suddenly hyper aware of her loose, unbrushed red waves and the spot on her cheek.

"Your seat?" he asked. God, even his _voice_ was beautiful- smooth as velvet.

"Y-yes," she stammered. Her cheeks were now glowing like hot coals. "I've reserved it." She fumbled for her ticket, showed it to him. Beneath her feet, the train began to pull away from the platform.

"Oh, I see," he replied. "Do you want me to move?"

"Don't bother, James" came a voice from behind them. "She can sit on my lap, can't you, beautiful?"

Lily turned to see the shaggy-haired boy from earlier smirking at her arrogantly. The short, rounded boy next to him let out a bray of laughter.

"Sirius!" both the handsome boy and the shabbily dressed boy next to him exclaimed.

"Look, I'm sorry"- one of them said. But Lily, now scarlet with anger and mortification, was already pushing back down the aisle.

She sank to the floor in the space between carriages, already berating herself for her undignified exit. Surely she could have thought of something witty to say to the arrogant one? But it was like the good looks of the other one- James, was that his name? -had twisted her tongue into knots.

Groaning, she dropped her head onto her knees. No, she refused to be one of those love-at-first-sight girls!

"Excuse me," came a familiarly velvet voice from above her. Lily's pool of embarrassment deepened, and she thought she groaned.

"Look, I'm really sorry about that. Sirius, he can be a bit of a prat. Can we start again? I'm James, James Potter."

She risked a quick glance upwards, only to find her eyes stuck to his face like they'd been glued there. With superglue. He was grimacing anxiously, and running a hand through his already glorious hair.

"I'm Lily Evans." She took the hand he offered, and began to shake it as he pulled her upwards. Right then, the train jerked beneath them and she almost fell on top of him.

"Oh, god"-

"No, I'm sorry"- they both laughed.

She brushed her hair awkwardly as they stood there, unsure what to say.

He looked away. "Will you come back with me? I feel bad about your seat, and I'd like you to meet Sirius properly- he's not that obnoxious when you get to know him. Most of the time."

She laughed, and then said something she hadn't expected. "Yeah, okay then. And I'm sorry about all the dramatic redhead stuff- I'm not usually this awkward, it's just the train was late, and then…"

"Yeah, I know." He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye- if she didn't know better, she'd think it was a shy look. Both of them chuckled.

When he took her hand on the way back down the aisle, it felt like the most natural thing in the world.


End file.
